Music

April 22, 2011

We were a bit taken aback by the news that Prince, now on tour and in the midst of 21-dates in LA, happens also to be “singing the same tune as millions of American homeowners: The Foreclosure Blues.” Apparently, the 20 acres that he owns in Minnesota, where his home once stood, has been scheduled for auction to satisfy his mortage, althought the Star-Tribunereports “Prince contended Thursday afternoon that the ‘payment has been made’ for the full amount and was sent to the Bank of New York Mellon Trust Co. ‘about four or five days ago.’”

So the big question is, will the bank even care? Clearly for most Americans, they could care less.

For example, JPMorgan Chase just settled for $56 million a class action brought by 6,000 active-duty miliatary families,“who were overcharged on their mortgages. [The bank also] cut interest rates on soldiers’ home loans and return homes that were wrongfully foreclosed upon.”

There is also an investigation by all 50 state Attorneys General of foreclosure scandals like “robo-signing,” where banks hired people to forge official names on documents so they could take away people’s homes without verifying any facts. Iowa AG Tom Miller, who is in the midst of crafting a major settlement with the banks, has gotten into a bit of a campaign finance mess due to donations to him from “out-of-state lawyers who make a living representing big banks” but Miller objects strongly to the implication of a conflict. At least he's trying to hold the banks accountable, so much so that “Oklahoma’s attorney general said he is prepared to break ranks” with the settlement that Miller and the Justice Department are crafting. He doesn't like banks being forced “to pay at least $20 billion in fines and use the money to reduce the principal on mortgages of ‘underwater’ borrowers, who owe more on their loans than their homes are worth. ‘I have asked my attorneys to prepare me for an option that does not require that,' he says." Hope his constituents remember that.

And then there’s the heartwarming story of South Carolina’s Keith Gamble. As the Richmond Post-Dispatchreports, what started as a hobby “is now a risky, exciting, full-time job: buying properties at the monthly foreclosure sale and flipping them." He says, "Some people's bad fortune is other people's opportunity. I know that sounds callous.”

April 19, 2010

I’m not quite sure this is what Bob Dylan had in mind,
but good lyrics are timeless, after all.And not that we’re quite yet past the dark ages of the Bush years, but
there are a few good signs.One,
of course, is the fraud suit just brought against Goldman Sachs by the SEC,
which seems to be waking up after years of hibernation, allowing the
financial economy hit the skids.(Wow, could AIGbe next? )

Another is the appointment of former Missouri Insurance
Commissioner Jay Angoff to implement the health insurance industry reforms under the
new health bill.The New York
Timesdiscussed Jay today in a profile of new health care players,
although the article left out my favorite fact about Jay – he’s a great keyboardist
and once played for the 60’s rock band, the Brooklyn Bridge.Their big hit, “The Worst That Could
Happen,” is another timeless lyric, andone that all greedy insurance
executives must be singin’ now!

That’s because there is not a better advocate for consumers,
and for insurance industry accountability, than Jay Angoff.In his past work with the Center for
Justice & Democracy, Jay took on medical malpractice insurance companies
and their actuaries, who consistently exaggerate future losses to justify rate
hikes.
Jay found that, "The
leading malpractice insurers’ Annual Statements indicate that they have been
raising their premiums even though both their actual claims payments and their
projected future claims payments have been falling.”This report, of course drove the insuranceindustry crazy because it was based entirely on their own statements submitted under oath!

The Times called Jay the “nemesis of the insurance
industry.”Or as we would put it, it’s “The Best
That Could Happen”!

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